Blackizzz shallow zeovit tank

[blackizzz]

So, got my Triton-test results back, overall it looks good.

A little surprised that Calcium is so high, my Salifert test kit tests it to be around 400, and against a reference solution (fauna marin) the test kit shows slightly lower than actual values, around 15-25 low, so my Calcium should be around 415-425. Triton is showing 562 mg/l, so a huge difference. I'm not dosing any Calcium either yet, so most likely it'll drop down in due time.

High Barium, seen that a lot of Zeovit tanks have that, must be in something we dose. Shouldn't be a problem though, according to the masses.

Low Potassium, as I knew, been trying to get that up, but struggling - been dosing twice the recommended amount of K-balance daily, will increase to three times the recommended amount.

Iodine is tested at absolutely 0, which I find unlikely since I dose it daily, "must" be a testing error.

 

[marvelousone]

Yeah I have. Tank has been a roller coaster to say the least. It's not just sps now. I will update it tonight. I have been making some changes.

 

[blackizzz]

Today's project: Set up Zeostart3 for automatic dosing.

I should've taken pictures from the process, but I forgot :mad:

Idea: Dilute Zeostart in such a way that I can dose 0.3ml per day, 0.15ml per dose. I want to dose 10ml liquid per day, 5ml per dose. Hence I need 3% Zeostart in the solution!

I got 1L of "cleaner than medical grade" "ultra clean water"
They claim it to be 100x "cleaner" than distilled water, should work for my application

I removed 30ml from the water container, and put in 30ml of zeostart.

I then added a one way valve, and set it up to my dosing pump.

Waiting anxiously for the first "automatic dose"

If it works as it should, then great, one less thing to worry about for my 3 week vacation in 2 months time ;Nailbiting

 

[blackizzz]

So I got tired of dosing a lot of K-balance and not seeing any difference, in corals or in tests. So I bought some Triton Potassium supplement and decided to dose slightly less than what they recommended when I got my ICP-analysis. I have dosed for 2 days, and will dose for 5 days in total. Then I'll test and see what levels I've reached. Hopefully it'll be enough, or I'll dose a little more.

Then I can use K-balance to maintain K levels at where they should be.

 

[marvelousone]

Today's project: Set up Zeostart3 for automatic dosing.

I should've taken pictures from the process, but I forgot :mad:

Idea: Dilute Zeostart in such a way that I can dose 0.3ml per day, 0.15ml per dose. I want to dose 10ml liquid per day, 5ml per dose. Hence I need 3% Zeostart in the solution!

I got 1L of "cleaner than medical grade" "ultra clean water"
They claim it to be 100x "cleaner" than distilled water, should work for my application

I removed 30ml from the water container, and put in 30ml of zeostart.

I then added a one way valve, and set it up to my dosing pump.

Waiting anxiously for the first "automatic dose"

If it works as it should, then great, one less thing to worry about for my 3 week vacation in 2 months time ;Nailbiting

Great idea can you post a picture how you doing it.

 

[blackizzz]

Great idea can you post a picture how you doing it.

Not much to photograph really, just a container!

As long as the solution is clear, it’s not tainted by bacteria. No stirring necessary after the initial mix

The container and tubing needs to be cleaned properly (“almost sterile”) which is why I elected to use the already sterile water container, minimizing pollution to the small hole to let air in.

The lid has a one way valve glued to it. The tubing goes straight into the dosing pump, and is getting pumped into the return section of the sump.

So basically all I “need” to do daily is pump the reactor, and that can be skipped if necessary

 

[blackizzz]

Quick snap-shot from today

Did some testing:

Sg: 1.0245
pH: 8-8.1
Alk: 7.6
Ca: 430
Mg: 1320
K: 400 (wohoo, seems like my extra dosing worked)
No3: 1
Po4: 0.028 (probably slightly lower due to error-range)

Pretty much exactly where I want it.

Corals all look healthy, good PE and some growth

 

[marvelousone]

looking nice

 

[blackizzz]

looking nice

Thank you mate

 

[blackizzz]

Not happened much here lately, tank is tugging along. Wouldn't mind a bit more growth, but coloration has improved some lately at least. Starting to notice a bit more usage of KH in between water changes, so I'll work on testing that so I can start dosing a small amount each day to offset.

Some pictures, currently "battling" some dinos on the sand bed. Not doing much about it at the moment, hesitant to dose anything special as I'm soon about to leave the tank for 3-ish weeks. Not too bad at the moment, but not pretty. Gave the skimmer a good cleaning and that seems to have aided some in the battle, looks much better today than when the photos below were taken.

Photos are as usual just "stick the phone under water and click" but they give a decent look into how things are looking over here.

"Ignore the brown-ish sandbed"

Mostly seeing encrusting, but some, like the top picture has started to branch out pretty good.





I have two Acros that aren't doing too great, both are STN'ing, which has been going on for 2-3 weeks plus, it's super slow, but surely there ;Nailbiting Both are showing better colors than ever, good PE, no signs of pests, KH has been steady at 7.5 since it started (a slow drop to 6.9 then brought up to 7.5 again within 3 days)
Nothing has changed in terms of light, flow, etc. Both are losing tissue from the base up, starting in the shaded areas and it seems to "slow" down once the tissue loss reaches the lit areas, but not stop completely. They're at opposite ends of the tank, and nothing is seemingly disturbing them. Acros sitting next to them are all doing "great".

One has lost about 35% of the tissue, the other maybe 15%, but the latter started STN'ing first (first saw signs a month or so ago) ;Nurse

I contemplated removing them from the rock, placing them on plugs and on a frag rack for "observation", but that might just "speed up" the process?

One of the "troubled" corals, the most troubled one:

From the top - polyps out, (been getting more and more green polyps lately. When I got it, it was basically just purple) From the side - some of (about half) the dead tissue showing...


Anyways I'm sure it'll turn out for the better soon ;Brb

 

[marvelousone]

That's some nice pics. Great colors

 

[blackizzz]

That's some nice pics. Great colors

Thank you mate

 

[saintsreturn]

Looking and coming along great! Glad the triton test came back clean

 

[blackizzz]

Looking and coming along great! Glad the triton test came back clean

Thanks mate! So am I

Interesting to see what parameters the pretty untested Reefers Best BioReef salt is able to keep! Especially interesting that it zeroes out at Iodine unless I have something that really likes iodine

 

[blackizzz]

Back home after 3-ish weeks away, and it hasn’t really been uneventful for the tank!

About a week and a half into my trip, Stockholm was hit by a storm, and subsequently (just my luck) a pretty massive power outage, actually the worst we’ve had in decades. (Perfect timing). My tank sitter, now known as the hero, did an incredible job with keeping the house warm enough (freezing outside) and also kept the generator running for over 36h straight.

Once the power came back, and I could access the webcams, I discovered that despite the events the tank looked pretty okay, no dead fish, clear water and no apparent tissue necrosis on corals!

And if I’d been lucky that would’ve been the end of things, but no...

Two days later I check the webcams again and see that the water level is low, just as if the return pump wasn’t working. And that was the case... luckily it was warm enough indoors to keep the tank at slightly over 23 Celsius without the heater, (in the sump) and everything else was still working, so still not a huge problem. Although, despite the best efforts from the tank sitter and myself to diagnose the fault, the pump wouldn’t start. I had him put a reserve-heater in the display tank, and start topping off RO water manually in the display.

Fast-forward to today, got home around 2 hours ago, and discover a tank that looks slightly annoyed, but alive! Still no return pump, and a lot of algae growth, but the fact that things are alive makes me happy enough!

A new return is on its way, should be here Tuesday or Wednesday, and then I’ll try to get things back to normal!

A quick YF-shot in Bluelight from now, colors are still mostly there, a few that have become a little pale, but as long as they’re alive

 

[marvelousone]

Man hate to hear that. Hope it works out.

 

[blackizzz]

Man hate to hear that. Hope it works out.

It’ll be fine most likely it will take some time before it gets back to normal, I’m just glad everything’s alive

 

[blackizzz]

Got the new return monday, such a relief to get things going again.

Had to redo a little bit of plumbing, as the new pump was bigger than the old, and wouldn’t fit. Added another union to the return line while I was at it, to make it even easier to access the pump in case I need to. Also after getting the pump going I noticed that a Cerith snail had taken refuge in the main overflow pipe, probably when the overflow drained during blackout. Getting that removed allowed me to crank up the flow on the S1 without worry



Done some testing today since the water has cleared up after getting the sump online and skimmer/zeofilter going again. When starting the return I had replaced about 35-40% of the water in the sump with fresh, so the water was really cloudy for about 24 hours, but finally clear as it should be!

Everything except KH is looking good, KH had risen to 8.8. Planning to do a couple of smaller water changes the next few days to slowly bring it down to 7.5-7.8 ish.

The rest are
Sg: 1.0255
Temp: 24.8 (target 25°)
Ca: 435
Mg: 1330
K: 390
NO3: 2
Po4: 0.037

Not too bad considering

The plan for now is to change carbon today, do a 10% WC tomorrow, another 10% on friday and then change Zeovit media and 10% water on sunday. This should be enough to bring down the KH to acceptable range, but probably not all the way down to 7.8. Once this is done, I look forward to getting the dosing back to normal, and try to find some stability again

 

[blackizzz]

Tank is doing good.

For some reason I can't for the life of me bring the KH down despite what salt I use (three different salts tried) Corals aren't really coloring as well as they should due to this, but finally got some growth again, even if it's minimal!

Just scraped the glass, so a little too much particles in the water for photos, but I'll try and get some decent ones, but for now this will have to do

Bought a PAR meter and did some testing, as a result I've increased the light intensity, to try and land in the 250-400 PAR "sweet-spot"

 

[blackizzz]

A new friend in the tank! nearing a completely stocked tank now, at least fish-wise. The Potters gave it a tough start, but it looks like it’s settling in nicely! Eating like a pig